[carapace]

For an exercise in clear (and perhaps provocative) thinking, try:

'What Is "Electricity"?' ©1996 William J. Beaty

> What is electricity? This question is impossible to answer because the word "Electricity" has several contradictory meanings. These different meanings are incompatible, and the contradictions confuse everyone. If you don't understand electricity, you're not alone. Even teachers, engineers, and scientists have a hard time grasping the concept.

> Obviously "electricity" cannot be several different things at the same time. Unfortunately we've defined the word Electricity in a crazy way. Because the word lacks one distinct meaning, we can never pin down the nature of electricity. In the end we're forced to declare that there's no such stuff as "electricity" at all!

http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html

[Koshkin]

Analyzing the meaning of words is characteristic to philosophy and is not a sign of “clear thinking.”